Surviving

It is my birthday today and thanks for all the best wishes. However, it is also the anniversary of my first day in the construction industry. It was forty five years ago in Liverpool and I was a seventeen year old plasterer’s labourer and very wet behind the ears. I recommend anyone to read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist Which was set in the 1900’s and opens all our eyes to what the industry was like then.

It has been a hard road traveled since the first day I set foot on a construction site, many changes have taken place but we are still pouring concrete the same way, still have divisions between site workers and management, and working even harder to make a dollar. We have not embraced whole heartedly technology and still make the same mistakes.

Besides the negatives, I still love the industry and get the same buzz watching a tower crane going up or handing a project over. These days I get a great deal of satisfaction from spending time with our graduates and less satisfaction from winning contractual arguments.

Anyway this is a short blog tonight as it is time for the party. A great day, good memories of 1971, a phone call from each of my children, a form worker, an electrician and a music teacher, and pictures from my two princesses of granddaughters, and know a great evening with my darling wife.